A Sterling Heights man, accused in the deaths of four women, admitted in court Thursday that he lied to police during their investigation.

The false statements, in addition Brown's questioning of authorities, highlighted an evidentiary hearing in the case against James C. Brown, 25.

Brown, a 2007 graduate of Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights, is accused of suffocating four women -- all whom he met through the social website backpage.com -- in December 2011 at his home near 18 Mile and Mound roads. The victims, whose bodies were found in vehicles in Detroit, were Demesha Hunt, 25, Renesha Landers, 24, Natasha Curtis, 29, and Vernithea McCrary, 28.

Hunt and Landers were cousins.

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Brown also is charged with mutilating their bodies and arson after setting fire to one of the vehicles.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Cojocar asked that Brown's statements be ruled illegal because he claims Brown talked a second time under the threat that Detroit police were going to charge his mother with a crime related to the case. She has not been charged.

Macomb Circuit Judge James Biernat will issue a ruling.

During the first interview on May 1, 2012, Brown denied any knowledge of the incidents and said he didn't know the victims.

In the second interview, he admitted he contacted and met the women and made other admissions, although on Thursday he denied he was present at the home when the women died.

"They (police) said she was being interrogated," Brown testified, referring to his mother, Shirley. "They said they were going to bring my mom into this. ... They were going to charge my mom. I didn't want her to be involved. ... I was scared for my mom."

The four-hour second interview and two-hour first interview stopped when he asked for a lawyer.

During that first interview with detectives Derryck Thomas from the Detroit police and Sgt. Ken Ducker of the Michigan State Police, state police detective Sgt. Lil Drew joined in for a moment to tell Brown his mother told him to tell the truth and referred to Brown's nickname, "Mookie."

Investigators told Brown his mother was a "nice woman" and learned she cooked food for her church.

Under questioning by Macomb Assistant Prosecutor Therese Tobin on Thursday, Brown admitted more than once that he lied during that first interview at the homicide section of Detroit police headquarters. "I was almost giving him bulls-- answers," he said. "I didn't really answer his questions."

That remark brought groans from several of the approximately 20 friends and family of the victims sitting in the courtroom.

Brown in an affidavit and testimony also accused Drew, assigned to the Detroit police homicide task force, of illegally asking him questions while he was being held in a room at police headquarters. Drew, who was not working on the case, was keeping an eye on Brown before he was to be transported to a second precinct cell.

He said Drew asked him questions about the case, explaining that his answers would amount to "hearsay" and could not be used in court.

"He started to give me kind of like scenarios," Brown testified. "He was trying to give me a way out, get it off my chest.

"I wasn't really answering. ... I was giving BS answers "

But Drew said Brown lied.

"I would not have said, 'hearsay,' " to a suspect, he said. "His affidavit is kind of funny because (he says) some things I would never say," he said.

Brown claimed that Drew asked him to submit to a polygraph test, which Drew denied.

Drew reversed the claim, saying Brown queried him about the investigation. He called Brown "confused and inquisitive." When Brown asked specific questions, "I cut him off," Drew said.

"It was burning him up to find out what we knew," he said. "Suspects always want to get information from you. They want to know what you know."

Drew said he agreed only to answer basic procedural questions such as who decides on charges.

Drew allowed Brown to call his mother on Drew's cellphone but didn't allow him to talk to his brother.

Brown testified about the call. "She said she wanted me to tell the truth," he said. "She's a church-going woman. She was crying. I could hear it."